May 23, 2017

The Board on Global Health and members of Committee on Global Health and the Future of the United States will present the report, “Global Health and the Future Role of the United States.” The report examines the changing landscape of global health and opportunities for the U.S. government, as well as nongovernmental organizations and the private sector, to improve responsiveness, coordination, and efficiency in their work.

Following a brief introduction on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee process, this webinar will outline the main findings, conclusions, and recommendations in the report.

At the end of the presentation, webinar participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to three of our committee members present: Amie Batson, Lia Fernald, and Michael Merson.

Speakers:

Amie Batson, M.B.A., Chief Strategy Officer, PATH

Ms. Batson is responsible for guiding PATH’s strategy, strengthening partnerships and business relationships in the global health community, and contributing to its advocacy and policy priorities. Ms. Batson’s 20-year career in global health includes positions with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, and most recently, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where she served as senior deputy assistant administrator for global health. During her three-year appointment with USAID, Ms. Batson led the agency’s engagement in the President’s Global Health Initiative, represented the US government on the board of the GAVI Alliance, and led the US government team in coconvening the Child Survival Call to Action, which launched the global vision to end preventable child deaths. Throughout her career in global health, Ms. Batson has been a leader in innovation. Her contributions to immunization and vaccine financing at the World Bank resulted in billions of dollars in new funding for global health and the vaccination of millions of children against polio, pneumonia, diarrhea, and other vaccine-preventable causes of death. Ms. Batson earned a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and a MBA from the Yale University School of Management.

Lia Haskin Fernald, PhD, MGA, Professor, School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Lia Haskin Fernald’s work has focused primarily on how inequalities in socio-economic position contribute to growth and developmental outcomes in mothers, infants and children, and on how interventions can address socio-economic and health disparities. Much of her work for the past decade has centered on looking at the effects of interventions (e.g. conditional cash transfer programs, parenting programs, microcredit interventions, and community-based nutrition interventions) on child development and maternal mental health, particularly focused on low and middle-income countries. She recently worked with a team of authors to write a review for The Lancet about strategies to address poor development among infants and children in low and middle-income countries.

Michael Merson, MD, Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health
Director, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University

Michael H. Merson is the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health at Duke University. In addition, Dr. Merson serves as the Vice Chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Affairs. Dr. Merson graduated from Amherst College (BA) and the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. After serving as a medical intern and resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, he worked in the Enteric Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, GA, and then served as the Chief Epidemiologist at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research focused on the etiology and epidemiology of acute diarrheal diseases, including cholera, in developing countries and on the cause of travelers’ diarrhea in persons visiting these countries. In 1978, he joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Medical Officer inthe Diarrheal Diseases Control Program. He served as Director of that Program from January 1980 until May 1990. In August 1987, he was appointed Director of the WHO Acute Respiratory Infections Control Program. In May 1990, he was appointed as Director of the WHO Global Program on AIDS. In April 1995, he joined Yale University School of Medicine as its first Dean of Public Health and as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, positions he held until December 2004. From 1999-2006, he also served as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. Dr. Merson has authored more than 175 articles, primarily in the area of disease prevention. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, Doris Duke Foundation, World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and on several NIH review panels and advisory committees. He is a member of the Commission for Smart Global Health Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Moderator:

Hon. Keith Martin, MD, PC, Executive Director
Consortium of Universities for Global Health

Dr. Martin is a physician who, since Sept. 2012, has served as the founding Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) based in Washington, DC.

Between 1993-2011, Dr. Martin served as a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons representing a riding on Vancouver Island. During that time he held shadow ministerial portfolios in foreign affairs, international development, and health. He also served as Canada’s Parliamentary Secretary for Defense. In 2004, he was appointed to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. His main areas of focus are in global health, foreign policy, security, international development, conservation and the environment.

Dr. Martin has been on numerous diplomatic missions to areas in crisis. He served as a physician in South Africa on the Mozambique border during that country’s civil war. He has travelled widely in Africa, visiting the continent 27 times. Dr. Martin is the author of more than 160 published editorial pieces, has appeared frequently as a political and social commentator on television and radio and has spoken at conferences around the world. He is a board member of the Global Health Council, Jane Goodall Institute and Annals of Global Health. He is an advisor for the Int’l Cancer Expert Corps, Global Sepsis Alliance and McGill University’s Global Health Program and a member of the Lancet-ISMMS Commission on Pollution and Health.